Does Meng Po really exist?Experts found her prototype in the "Classic of Mountains and Seas", beautiful as a fairy
According to folk tradition, after death, people have to cross the Huangquan Road, the Forget Worry River, the Sansheng Stone, and the Nai He Bridge, and only after drinking Meng Po soup can they be reincarnated.
It is said that after drinking Meng Po soup, the deceased will forget everything in this life, and the soul will be purified, and then reincarnated. So, is there a Meng Po in history?What is Meng Po soup?
There are three main theories about the prototype of Meng Po:
Meng Jiangnu. The legend of Meng Jiangnu crying on the Great Wall is one of the most famous legends in ancient China. At the beginning of Qin Shi Huang's unification of China, he called on the whole country to build the Great Wall, but Meng Jiangnu did not return for several days. When Meng Jiangnu came to the Great Wall, she didn't find her husband, she cried sadly, and finally moved the heavens, not only letting the repaired Great Wall collapse, but also letting him enter heaven and manage the reincarnation of the world. This story has been widely circulated since the Yuan Dynasty and is recorded in many works of the Ming and Qing dynasties.
One of the women of the Western Han II period.
There is also a saying that Meng Po was originally a woman of the Western Han Dynasty, shrewd since she was a child, and she was proficient in world affairs. She didn't think about the past and didn't want the future, so she didn't get married until she was 80 years old. Because her surname is Meng, people call her Meng Po.
Later, Meng Weijun went up the mountain to cultivate immortals. During this period, there are people in the world who know their karma in their past lives and escape from this world in order to recognize the karma of their past lives. These people use their little cleverness to occasionally reveal the secrets of the gods. For this reason, the heavens officially canonized Meng Po as the god of the underworld, built the Pillar of Annihilation, and sent spiritual envoys to serve. Later, he also invented Meng Po soup.
This story is found in the "Jade Treasure Calendar" of the Liao Dynasty. It is said to have been written by the Liao Dynasty Taoist priest Temujin in 1030. Song Shenzong gave it to the **Beiguidao people in 1068, and Song Zhezong printed it in 1098. Based on the advanced printing and distribution technology of the Song Dynasty, the Jade Calendar was widely circulated among the people.
3. Scattered all over the place.
Meng Po was the first person in Hongmeng to live in**. He couldn't bear to see the afterlife full of resentment, so he applied to Hades for the position of purifying people's souls after death. So, he came to the Nai He Bridge, set up a cauldron, and gave them Meng Po soup to drink, so that they could forget their previous lives and enter the next round of reincarnation.
All these statements about Meng Po are obviously false. Historians believe that Meng Po, like many ancient legends, was a mythical figure made up by the ancients in order to preserve certain emotions.
In the long history, Meng Po existed only to tell people that the pain of lovesickness is always unforgettable. Forgiveness seems to be a relief, but in fact it is the beginning of a new round of reincarnation, and a new lovesickness has to start again, and then use Meng Po soup to make us forget, maybe lovesickness is an eternal darkness.
Although there is no such thing as Meng's mother in the legend, scholars unexpectedly discovered it in the "Classic of Mountains and Seas"."Meng's mother"exists.
The Classic of Mountains and Seas says:"The second daughter of Di Yao, swimming in the river, will be accompanied by wind and rain, so she is called Meng's mother"。Meng Po is actually Di Yao's second daughter.
An analysis of the Records of the Five Emperors and the Shangshu-Yaodian reveals the identity of Meng Po in more detail. According to legend, more than 4,000 years ago, Yao had two daughters, the eldest daughter was named Emperor E, and the second daughter was named Nuying.
Di Yao, one of the ancient ancestors, later defected to Shun and married his two daughters to Shun. Later, Shun Nan patrolled and died unexpectedly in Cangwu. When the sisters found out, they went to find Shun together.
Unfortunately, they jumped into the Xiang River and turned Shun into a river god. This story is explained in the Classic of Mountains and Seas"Swim in the river"said. With the change of the times, the image of Meng Po also changed in later legends, and finally changed from the god of wind and rain to the god of the underworld, known as the goddess of the underworld, responsible for the reincarnation of hell.
There are also three main theories about Meng Po soup.
One theory is that Meng Po soup is made by mixing the human soul with the herbs of the secular world. This statement is the most absurd and bizarre.
Second, in the book "Lingzhuan - Yellow Spring", it is said that Meng Po soup is used"One drop of raw tears, two drops of old tears, three drops of painful tears, four tears of regret, five inches of lovesick tears, six cups of sick tears, seven feet away from tears, and the eighth taste is a drop of Meng Po's sad tears"It is made by boiling eight flavored medicinal herbs.
Thirdly, there is also a legend that the ingredients of real Meng Po soup are very simple: a bowl of river water, two forget-you-worry grasses, and three roses under the Nai He Bridge.